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In the world of SEO, authority is essentially the VIP status of a webpage. Its importance relative to all other potential contenders for a search query’s crown. Modern search engines like Google have a whole arsenal of factors they sift through to evaluate this authority.

Why Google prioritizes page authority

But why is Google so keen on judging a page’s worthiness? With a staggering number of pages available for most queries, Google aims to spotlight the ones most likely to satisfy users with accurate, reliable information that truly addresses their needs.

Ultimately, Google wants to serve up the most authoritative pages because happy users are loyal users. When searchers find what they are looking for, they are most likely to return to Google for their next search, giving Google even more opportunities to showcase its ads. In other words, it is in Google’s best interest to play matchmaker between users and high-quality content.

Search Engines and the Birth of PageRank

The first big challenge for search engines was figuring out how to assess the authority of webpages. In the beginning, some search engines used human reviewers, but as the web grew rapidly, that method just couldn’t keep up.

Google beat out its competitors because its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, came up with PageRank. This system used links from other pages as a way to measure how trustworthy a page was. Page and Brin understood that links acted like votes from other reliable sites, showing which pages were relevant and trustworthy.

Search engines treat links similarly to how we view scholarly citations—the more relevant academic papers that reference a source, the more credible that source becomes. The authority and trustworthiness of the citing sources matter too.

Links: The Ultimate Authority

What’s the secret sauce that catapulted Google to search engine stardom in record time? It’s all about links. Google revolutionized the game by turning link analysis into a ranking superpower.

This idea was sparked in a groundbreaking paper by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, titled The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine. According to the paper, the web is like a giant spider web of interconnected documents, all held together by links.

Putting a link to another site on your own means risking your audience clicking away, so why would any sensible publisher link to another site unless it was truly outstanding? Essentially, linking to a third-party site acts like casting a “vote” for it, signaling to the world that it’s a valuable resource worthy of attention.

Passing PageRank

A key part of Google’s original algorithm was PageRank, a method for determining which web pages are most important based on the links they get. Simply put, a page with a lot of high-quality links pointing to it will have a higher page rank. This usually means it has a better chance of ranking higher in search results than pages with lower scores.

When one page links to another, it passes a portion of its PageRank to the linked page. As a result, pages build up more PageRank depending on the quantity and quality of links they attract.

Remember, not all links are created equal.

More links equal more votes, equal to more page rank, right? Well, it’s not that straight forward. PageRank scores can range from a humble “1” to very high numbers. A link from a high PageRank page is worth way more than a link from a low one. In fact, one link could be worth a million times more than another.

But page rank isn’t the only thing that matters. Google also checks the topic of the linking page and the anchor text. That’s where relevance comes into play, but we’ll get into that next.

Now, let’s talk, trust. Some say “trust” plays a role in link value and rankings, but Google’s not buying it, at least not officially. The idea came from a Yahoo patent called TrustRank, which claimed fewer clicks from trusted sites to yours meant more trust. But Google says it doesn’t work like that.

However, Google did get a patent in 2013 related to link trustworthiness. But don’t jump to conclusions. A patent doesn’t mean its in use. So, if you’re evaluating link sources, a “trusted” link isn’t a bad way to think about it. If a site sells links, has lousy content, or just looks shady, it’s probably not the best link source. Google might not be grading trust like you are, but it’ll probably devalue that link anyway.

Final Thoughts

Focusing on trusted, reputable link sources is a smart approach. Shady sites, poor content, or paid links are red flags and likely won’t carry much value. While Google may not explicitly calculate “trust” the same way, its algorithm is sophisticated enough to devalue low-quality links, so stick with sources that reflect credibility.

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